The present invention relates to high precision processing technology for a processing device for a microscopic region using an electron beam.
With respect to demands for high precision processing of microscopic regions of local domains that has increased in recent years, exemplified by semiconductor fine processing, magnetic storage devices and MEMS, since with an electron beam device such as a scanning electron microscope or a transmission electron microscope film deposition rate and etching rate are lowered even while indicating capability due to high image resolution, up to now focused ion beam devices having high film formation and etching rates have been used in high precision processing of microscopic regions.
However, with a focused ion beam device, since the extent of damage to a processed region having high film formation and etching rates due to ion beam injection is large, it is difficult to adapt to material that requires processing without damage, and for this type of material there is a demand for processing of microscopic regions using electron beam processing that causes hardly any damage.
With focused ion beam processing device of the related art, microscopic holes are formed close to a region to be processed, and during processing a region including the holes is scanned and secondary ions contained in a substrate film are detected to obtain an amount of movement of the opened holes. This movement amount is treated as a drift amount, and high precision processing is realized by performing microscopic adjustment of an ion beam irradiation region and repeated processing, and then repeatedly calculating drift amount and feeding back to the ion beam irradiation region. With processing using an electron beam, since film deposition rate and etching rate are slow, processing time becomes longer than with an ion beam processing device, and in order to achieve high processing accuracy it is necessary to reduce the effect of drift to less than that of a focused ion beam processing device.
Also, with a focused ion beam processing device, when carrying out drift correction such as described above, as well as the processing region, there is also damage in a scanning range used for the drift correction, and depending on the situation there may also be removal of material due to physical sputter effect. Also, if holes formed by an ion beam for drift correction are too small, the holes may be filled in during film deposition and etching making drift correction impossible and lowering processing accuracy, while if the holes formed are too large the holes cause lowering of processing quality.
The present invention implements processing of microscopic regions with no damage, high precision and high quality, by carrying out damage free drift correction with a microscopic region processing device using an electron beam.